Intermission
by The Batchild
Summary: Following her surgery in Bulletproof Skin, Alianna is sent to New Vulcan to recover. In order for her to be able to do so however, Spock Prime has to utilize some techniques he may have otherwise avoided.
1. Chapter One: Recovery

I still don't own **Star Trek. **I still do own Alianna Lordeck and co-own Sindari Lordeck. This fic comes between **Ain't No Rest For the Wicked** and **The Beginning is the End **and covers plot points from the new movie's timeline and the Prime timeline from the original canon. It's rated for language and violence, mostly. Enjoy.

* * *

**Intermission.  
**Chapter One: Recovery.

* * *

_Vulcan Settlement, New Timeline._

The planet didn't have an official name yet.

Some of the unofficial names it was being referred to as included New Vulcan and Vulcan II, but the human currently walking across the landing zone just called it Hell, because it was hot.

"Damn it," Alianna Lordeck cursed as she came to a stop in front of the elderly Vulcan who was going to be her mentor or whatever. "Fuck. Why the hell did I agree to this? I'm going to melt! What was Bones thinking? What was Spock thinking? What was Kirk thinking?" She grumbled for a moment. "I'm not going to heal here. This is ridiculous." She huffed and wiped her hand across her brow, wincing as she moved. After having been nearly cut in half a few days ago on an exploding Klingon vessel, even very small movements hurt. "God damn it," she growled as she grabbed at her side.

Spock Prime reached forward and placed a hand on her forearm, stopping her from touching her wounded side. "Ms. Lordeck, I have spent enough time around Doctor McCoy to know that if you want your injuries to heal properly and quickly, you will have to refrain from touching them."

Alianna blinked and stared at the grey-haired Vulcan for a second. She knew this was the Spock from what was being referred to as the Prime Timeline, but she still found it difficult to wrap her head around the idea that he had met and lived with everyone she had and he had seen them all die. It was hard to focus on the fact that he had already lived a full life. "Riiight," she finally said. "Can we get out of this heat? This is insane." She wiped at her face again and took a deep breath, the hot air highly unsatisfactory.

"Of course. Follow me."

The security officer nodded and complied. Spock Prime led her through the temporary settlement, which consisted of buildings that looked like metal bunkers. Through open doors, Alianna could see bunk beds, all neatly made, and piles of belongings the remaining Vulcans had managed to save from their original home planet. Most of the surviving Vulcans were either the elder members of the Vulcan High Council that Spock had saved from the Katrik Arc, or Vulcan children, all of whom were settled around in small groups, meditating or being quizzed by the older Vulcans. Alianna took the young faces in and, even though she wasn't very surprised that there were no smiles, it was still disturbing. Children should smile, even if they were Vulcans. Alianna frowned.

Her mind wandered to Sage, the boy she'd saved from the _U.S.S. Intrepid. _The crew of the _Enterprise _would be taking him back to Earth, but she wondered what kind of shape he was in. Sage had asked to see Alianna, but with her injury and his, she had never got around to seeing him.

"Ms. Lordeck?"

Alianna realized she'd stopped walking. She shook her head slightly and pushed herself forward again, wrapping her arms protectively around herself. She fell into step beside Spock Prime and they continued through the settlement in silence until they reached the last bunker before the desert took over the planet.

"This is where you will be staying."

Alianna stepped up to the door, which sighed open, revealing a sparsely decorated room, and a room that was several degrees cooler than outside, thanks to the environmental controls. Her bag had been brought out by the shuttle pilot while Alianna had been waiting for the medical personnel to help her out of the shuttle, and was sitting on the floor by the low table. Two grey cushions provide seats around the table. There was a replicator on the far wall, and, at the other end of the bunker, a wall dividing the bedroom and bathroom from the main room. It wasn't much, but Alianna didn't mind; she had lived on a starship for most of her life. She stepped inside, followed by Spock Prime, and the door slid closed.

Carefully—so she wouldn't do any further damage to herself—Alianna moved her bag into the bedroom, and then returned to settle herself on one of the cushions, which were far more comfortable than she would have thought possible. "So how are we going to do this?"

"I'm assuming you are referring to me teaching you how to control your emotions." Spock Prime rearranged himself slightly and adjusted the robe he was wearing. "I believe the best place to start would be for me to perform a mind meld to determine where your anger lies." Picking up on the unasked question, the older version of Spock continued speaking. "A mind meld is a psychic connection Vulcans are capable of creating between themselves and a recipient. It allows for the transfer of complex information and emotions."

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea," Alianna said, subconsciously rubbing at her side. She didn't trust Spock Prime, not yet, and she didn't think it would be prudent to let him root around in her head. Her mind went first to that night with Kirk and she knew it would not be good to have someone find out about that.

"Alianna," he said, using her name for the first time. "I cannot help you if you won't let me."

"I don't know if I even want help," she snapped.

"Then, may I ask, why did you agree to come?"

Alianna looked across the table at the Vulcan, closed her green eyes, and put her forehead on the tabletop. She sat right back up though, as something pulled in her side. Wincing, she said, "Jim talked me into coming."

Spock Prime nodded and got to his feet, surprisingly agile for someone of his age, even a Vulcan. "I will leave you alone for a while to settle in, Alianna, and I will send T'Leia in to introduce herself and see if you need anything. She will be your nurse while you are staying here," he added at the questioning look on the young woman's face. "I will return after I check on things in the settlement."

Alianna opened her mouth to protest the assignment of a nurse, but she realized it would be a fruitless endeavour at the last minute and shut her mouth. She waved Spock Prime out of her bunker and, as soon as the door was closed behind him, she pushed herself slowly to her feet and hobbled into the bedroom, surprised at how much her side still hurt. It had been almost two weeks since the incident, and the pain had subsided a great deal, but she would still get moments when she thought she might fall apart, quite literally.

A moment after Spock Prime had left, the chime at the door sounded. "Come in," Alianna said.

The door opened, revealing a young-looking Vulcan with a severe face and brilliant blue eyes. Her black hair was pulled back in a tight bun at the back of her head and Alianna, who normally wore her hair the same way, was a little taken aback by the similarities between herself and who she assumed was T'Leia.

"You must be T'Leia."

"And you must be Alianna." The Vulcan flashed a bit of a grin and Alianna rose an eyebrow, unused to Vulcans showing emotion. "I'm half Romulan," she admitted.

"Right."

"Spock Prime thought you would fare better with someone more in touch with their emotions."

"He's probably right." Alianna sighed and leaned gingerly back against the wall, sweeping her long ponytail over her shoulder and running her fingers through the end of it.

"Do you need anything?" T'Leia asked, putting her hands in the opposite sleeves of her robe.

"No, it's just my back is stiff. It hurts my side to move too much, so my muscles have started to tighten."

Without saying anything, T'Leia pulled the other cushion over and knelt beside Alianna, turning the young woman gently so she could reach her back easily, and she started massaging. As she worked, the women asked questions of each other, and it was in this position that Spock Prime found them when he returned almost twenty minutes later. T'Leia excused herself, informing Alianna that she could reach her via the communicator on the wall beside the replicator, and left. Spock Prime returned the cushion to its place on the opposite side of the table and settled back in a cross-legged position after replicating two mugs of tea—a Vulcan blend for himself and a cup of Orange Pekoe for Alianna.

"Have you put any more consideration into the offer of a mind meld?"

"A little. Look, I'm still really reluctant..."

"I understand."

The pair fell into silence as they sipped their tea. As she drained the last of the sweet liquid from her cup, Alianna turned her green eyes to the older humanoid. "What do you want?" she snapped.

He turned a calm and level gaze to her. "To help."

She frowned at Spock Prime, but kept her green eyes locked to his dark ones. For a long moment they stared at each other, Alianna trying to find something in the Vulcan's face and the Vulcan giving her a steady gaze in return. "Did you... did you know me in the..." Alianna screwed up her features, trying to decide if the question she was going to ask would be appropriate. "Did you know me in your timeline?"

Spock Prime took the question in stride and nodded. "I did. Would you like to hear something about the you that I knew?"

After a moment of silent deliberation, Alianna nodded. Anything to get them off the topic of the mind meld. Plus, she really was curious about what her life could have been like, what it had been like in the Prime Timeline.

"Where would you like me to start?"

"Well... the beginning, if you know it."

"I do." Spock Prime got up and replicated two pots of tea and brought them back to the table. "You and I were friends in my timeline and you told me much about your childhood."

A little surprised, Alianna blinked. She was definitely not friends with the Spock she knew.

"Your mother left your father when she was pregnant with Sindari and you lived in California while she worked at Starfleet Academy, in the hospital. She was one of the professors responsible for teaching field medics." A slightly faraway look took over the Vulcan's face as he remembered. "You once told me how you and Sindari used to run around the Academy's campus when you were young, and once, you ran into a meeting of the Admirals."

Alianna found herself smiling. It sounded like the life she'd always wanted. "What did I end up doing?"

"You and Sindari held the same positions on the _Enterprise_ in my timeline; you were still head of security and Sindari was in charge of weapons."

Her smile grew. However, it faltered when she realized she was happy at the idea of working with Kirk, even in her other life. "So... it really wasn't that different?" she asked, floundering for something to get her mind off the young captain of the Federation's flagship.

"It is hard to judge, as we do not yet know the outcome of events and relationships in this timeline. If you are asking me to make an educated guess—and I am assuming you are doing just that—I would say things may turn out very differently. I have witnessed deep relationships that never formed in my timeline, or didn't form for years. I have also witnessed the lack of some relationships which became very common place to me."

"For example?"

"Details of the future should not be revealed, and I have already meddled."

"But it's not my future, Spock. It may never be my future." Alianna bit back the snarl she'd tasted and settled for screwing up her features in displeasure.

The older Vulcan sighed, a barely perceptible noise. "Your relationship with Jim Kirk. By the time I had met the two of you, you were already very close and rarely were you two separated until the late stages of your careers."

"What?" Alianna breathed, thoroughly shocked.

Seeing an opportunity that may not arise again, Spock Prime said, "Let me perform the mind meld and I will tell you."

Alianna narrowed her green eyes. "I thought Vulcans were supposed to be peaceful and kind, not manipulative," she muttered.

"I am only half Vulcan, Ms. Lordeck."

The young Starfleet officer sighed heavily and then winced as the motion hurt her wounds. Seeing that moving would be unwise, if not incapable for the patient, Spock Prime rose to his knees, moved the cushion across the floor, and settled himself, cross-legged and facing Alianna, his knees almost touching hers. He held her gaze as he stretched weathered hands towards her face, the tips of his fingers coming to rest lightly on her skin, one finger on her temple.

"My mind to your mind... my thoughts to your thoughts..." he whispered.

Alianna gasped as a physical force shuttered through her body. Her eyes remained open, but she wasn't seeing the inside of her bunker anymore, she was seeing her memories, reliving her life at the speed of light and she wasn't alone it witnessing the years. Spock Prime was along for the ride, his presence warm and comforting at the back of her mind. Alianna saw herself as a young girl on Andoria, reading curled up in a chair; building a model of a ship; being yelled at by her late mother; being beat by her late father while her mother stood by and Sindari cried in the corner. She saw herself at the Academy, sitting in class; doing research in the library; watching older students wander around campus; going to the bar by herself. She saw memory after memory and felt feeling after feeling and by the time the images of the night her and Kirk had spent together flashed in front of her eyes, she had had enough.

Summoning all the will she had, Alianna pulled out of the mind meld, the mental connection severing abruptly, causing intense pain, physical and cerebral. The already injured woman doubled over, tears streaming down her face, and then shot back up, the contracting of her middle causing even more pain. She howled, clutching at her sides, and fell back against the wall.

Spock Prime nearly leapt forward to keep Alianna from scratching new lacerations in her side and from slamming her head into the wall. "Alianna!" he said, his voice louder than normal to cut through hysterics.

The Vulcan knew what Alianna was feeling, but she was feeling it so much harder than Spock ever could, even through a mind meld. The memories he had seen had all been very personal and very hard to watch; she had been through so much, but she kept fighting. At least it explained her anger and her reluctance to share what was in her head. After experiencing the anger and sadness in Alianna's life, Spock Prime had tears on his face as well, but with centuries of practice, he was much more in control.

"Alianna!"

"HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ME?" she screamed, her hands now in a vice grip on her dark brown hair; clumps had come out of the loose ponytail and her appearance had begun to echo the shrieks coming from her mouth.

"Alianna, breathe!"

The shrieks had turned into strangled breaths as she began to hyperventilate. "How... What..."

"Take a deep breath," Spock Prime said in the most soothing voice he could muster.

Alianna's wild eyes finally locked on Spock Prime's and she managed to inhale deeply, the purple tinge immediately leaving her cheeks and the tears slowing as she calmed. Sobs still racked her body, but she stopped thrashing, and moved her hands from her head to Spock Prime's arms, the contact seemingly anchoring her. "I... I'm sorry."

Spock Prime moved his arms back so he could take her hands in his own. "There is no need to apologize, Alianna. Mind melds can have unpredictable effects."

"Have you ever seen something like that before?"

A small grin lifted the old Vulcan's lips as he pulled his hands from her grasp. "I have not. No one handles their first mind meld experience well, but I have never seen someone driven to hysterics. But then again, I have never shared minds with someone as angry as you." He offered another small grin as he wiped the tears from his cheeks with the sleeve of his robe; Alianna did the same with the heels of her hands. "But your suffering was not in vain, Alianna. I have determined the source of your anger and we will be able to deal with it."

"This is the weirdest therapy I've ever had," she said with a bitter laugh.

Spock Prime nodded his agreement as he returned to his side of the table. He poured Alianna another mug of tea and slid it towards her waiting hands. "Did Doctor McCoy give you anything for the pain?"

"Yes, but I can't take anymore for another couple hours."

"Finish your tea and I will tell you about the Jim Kirk and Alianna Lordeck I knew and hope it will take your mind off the pain."

Alianna had to fight the urge to drain her tea in three gulps. Not only would it have hurt her stomach, but it probably would have given her indigestion. After what seemed like an hour, the cup was finished and she was nearly calm; the anger had all but retreated back to its normal dull roar in the back of her head and all that remained of the sadness was a slight burn at the back of her eyes and a slightly hollow feeling in the middle of her face, where her sinuses were. She placed her cup on the table and leaned back against the wall until she was semi-comfortable and gestured at Spock Prime.

* * *

_Starfleet Academy, Prime Timeline._

Alianna Lordeck stood on the expansive lawn at the centre of the Starfleet Academy campus, her green eyes pointed towards the Administration Building and one hand tight on the strap of her bag. She was nervous about starting her training, which was something she had not been expecting. Excitement, yes. Nerves, no. Her mother was a professor and she had spent most of her life on the beautiful campus, but now that she was about to begin her education... She shifted nervously from foot to foot and ran one hand back over her hair, newly cut to shoulder-length and bound at the base of her skull in a short tail; she pushed several stray strands behind her ear.

She inhaled deeply and started towards the shining white building, her hand flexing on her bag strap, even as she began digging through one of the pockets for the ID chip that would let her in. Halfway up the steps, she dropped the thin black device and it clattered back towards the ground. She didn't notice.

Not until she got to the door, anyway.

"Damn it," she muttered. Alianna turned around, eyes locked on the ground, looking for chip. A pair of boots appeared in her vision. Her eyes rose, following the lines, until she was looking into the brown eyes of a very handsome young man, who was smiling broadly and had her ID chip between two fingers and held out towards her. "Uhm, hi?" she stammered, flustered by the sudden appearance of the stranger.

"Did you drop this?" he asked in a smooth voice.

She reached out and took the chip, wrapping her hand tightly around the little thing. "Thanks." Alianna flashed a small smile and turned back towards the door.

"Uh, I don't think you're going to be able to get into the Admirals' Offices with a cadet chip," he said.

"What? I'm not at the Admirals' Office. This is the Administration Building."

"No it's not." The smile on the stranger's face turned a little mocking.

"I know this campus," Alianna snapped, getting a little defensive. "This is the Administrative Building!"

The stranger stepped back and tapped the identification plate on the wall with his knuckles. As Alianna took in the engraved words that very clearly said "Admirals' Offices" and her face flushed deeply, the handsome young man smiled and wrapped his arm around her elbow. "Come on, I'll show you the way." Alianna wrenched her arm from his grasp and tried to glare, but followed him anyway as he led her along one of the paths. "It's okay," he said, falling back so he could speak quietly; there was another devious almost-smirk on his face. "Everyone gets lost on their first day."

"Oh yeah? Did you?"

The young man laughed and stopped walking. Alianna stopped as well, but nearly ran into him. He kept smiling at her. "I took a walk around campus yesterday to find everything and got _very _lost."

Alianna stared at him for a moment, took in the smirk and the slight leer. Something in the man's face made her feel calmer; made her want to smile. "You just wanted to find everything to impress all the girls," she said, her own smirk breaking out across her lips.

"Is it working?"

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Not even a little." Alianna mentally cursed herself as her cheeks flushed, exposing the lie. She was attracted to the stranger. He took it all in stride, flashed an even bigger grin and started walking again. Alianna fell in step beside him, her hands still wrapped around the strap of her bag and the ID chip still clutched in one of her palms. "I'm Alianna Lordeck," she said.

"James Kirk—call me Jim."

"Okay Jim."

"This is your building," he said, coming to another sudden stop.

Alianna nearly ran into him again. Fighting back the urge to say something about the second near-collision, she climbed up the stairs. "Thanks. See you around." Jim waved and Alianna approached the door, realizing that she wasn't nervous at all anymore.

Several hours later, student status activated and schedules and books in her possession, Alianna found herself a comfy patch of grass under a big, old tree and settled with her back against the trunk. Her morning classes had gone well—mostly introductory stuff, but informative nonetheless—and she had just finished lunch, so she was perfectly comfortable. She crossed her legs underneath her and pulled a well-worn novel out of her bag and opened to the marked page, her green eyes flying quickly over the printed words.

"Are you studying already?"

Alianna looked up and found herself smiling at Jim. "What makes you think I'm studying?" When he gestured to the book in her hands, she tilted it forward so he could see the title: _Gardens of the Moon. _"It's a novel."

Jim dropped to the ground beside her, back against the trunk of the tree and his shoulder just a fraction of an inch away from touching hers. "Why aren't you reading it on a handheld?" he asked. Something in the tone of his voice had changed. Much of the flirting and joking was gone. He sounded genuinely curious and actually interested in hearing the answer.

"I like books."

Jim gave her a bit of a stunned look. "Really."

"Yeah. What's the big deal?"

"I collect books."

The two cadets turned to look at each other, both a little stunned. Slow smiles crept over their faces and both of them let out short bouts of laughter. Alianna slipped her bookmark back into place and closed the novel, putting it back into her bag before turning to her unexpected companion. "I guess we shouldn't be too shocked that we have something in common," she said.

"I'm just shocked that we both like something so outdated."

Alianna laughed a bit and nodded, awarding the point. "So, why did you join Starfleet?"

Jim raised an eyebrow. "Do you really want to know that, or are you just asking to make conversation?"

She laughed again, louder, and Jim joined in.

* * *

**Author's Note.**

So, this is the mini-sequel that comes between **Ain't No Rest For the Wicked **and **The Beginning Is The End**. Huh, I never realized that both my main Star Trek fics have really doomy titles... Anyway, hopefully you enjoy this, because I really like it. This fic came from me wanting to write Alianna in the original canon, but not wanting to write a whole new fic.

Just to clarify, the "New Timeline" is the universe of the new movie and the "Prime Timeline" is the Original Series, so adjust all perceptions accordingly, and if you don't know the Original Series... just except my word, okay? No, I'm just kidding. If you're curious about something, you can look it up or ask me or something.

Anyways, enjoy.

**Next Chapter: Reluctance.**


	2. Chapter Two: Reluctance

I still don't own **Star Trek. **I still do own Alianna Lordeck and co-own Sindari Lordeck. This fic comes between **Ain't No Rest For the Wicked** and **The Beginning is the End **and covers plot points from the new movie's timeline and the Prime timeline from the original canon. It's rated for language and violence, mostly. Enjoy.

* * *

**Intermission.  
**Chapter Two: Reluctance.

* * *

_Vulcan Settlement, New Timeline. _

Two days has passed since Alianna had arrived on New Vulcan, and since the mind meld and her first look into the life of the Prime Alianna, she had not spoken to Spock Prime. Contrary to what even she had expected, Alianna was not mad with the elder Vulcan, although she was confused about the apparent progress of the training she was supposed to be receiving. She had seen him around the settlement, mostly helping the children with their studies, but also overseeing the shipment of the materials needed to start rebuilding. He had been put into a position as leader, one he seemed to have accepted without protest. Alianna knew she had come in the middle of a very busy time for the Vulcans, so she had expected a lot of time without Spock Prime, but it wasn't as if she was alone.

T'Leia had spent a great portion of the past two days with Alianna, working on relieving her physical pain and keeping her occupied so she didn't focus on the pain or her anger; they had found walking and massage helped keep her pain to a minimum. After an initial period of feeling out each other's sarcasm muscles and barking at each other, the human and the half-Vulcan found they enjoyed telling each other about their lives and they actually had a pretty good time together.

The half-Vulcan, half-Romulan had grown up on Vulcan under the very watchful eyes of her Vulcan mother, who had been more than a little ashamed of her daughter, who, regardless of the intense schooling and training she'd received, had remained reckless, emotional and outspoken. Or, in other words, very Romulan. T'Leia was very much aware of the looks she got and the wariness with which everyone approached her, and she had confided in Alianna that she was happy to have someone without the Vulcan prejudice colouring the conversation. Spock Prime was someone with whom T'Leia related, but he was still much more in tune with his Vulcan side than she was. T'Leia, on Vulcan, had worked as a medical aide, but after the devastation of the planet, she'd been sticking close to the elder Vulcans, who often needed medical attention as well as helping the children with their studies.

Currently, she was walking beside Alianna and they were making their way along the edge of the man-made lake that had been terra-formed at the beginning of settlement. Alianna had, after checking it was okay, removed her sandals and stepped into the mild water, looking for some relief from the heat, but T'Leia was insistent that she not spend too much time in the water as the extra effort required to walk might take too much out of her. To keep her charge distracted while they walked, T'Leia was asking questions about Alianna's life on board the _Marissa _and the _Enterprise. _

"You didn't mind the lack of personal space?" T'Leia asked, one dark eyebrow arching over her eye.

Alianna shrugged, wincing slightly as the gesture brought a faint twinge of pain. "I never found I needed anymore space to myself than my quarters. The _Marissa _was a larger ship and had room for civilians as well as Starfleet personnel, so it was a little cushier than other ships." She sighed. "The _Enterprise _is a little more utilitarian, but I really don't mind. Starfleet is my life."

T'Leia smiled knowingly and nodded once. "Is being here hard for you?"

The young security officer stopped herself from answering too quickly with the obvious and polite answer and seriously thought about it. There were times when she was bored and antsy and wanted to get back to her job, but there was a part of her that was enjoying the time off, mostly because she was so tired all the time. On New Vulcan, she could sleep without having to worry that someone would need her. But she had no idea how long that peace would last; as soon as she stopped getting tired in the middle of the day, probably. She'd want to be back on the bridge, behind her console. "It's a little hard," was the answer she finally settled on.

T'Leia once again gave the smile that said she was picking up on more than what was being said. "I understand. Did you miss being on solid ground at all?" the half-Vulcan asked to change the subject. She rearranged her hands inside her robe's sleeves as she waited for an answer.

Alianna ran her fingers back through her hair and then looked down at the water lapping against the mid-calf bottom of her pants. The water marks were getting higher and the liquid soaked into the fabric. "Sometimes," she admitted. "But I love being among the stars, exploring the unknown..." A bright grin spread across her face.

T'Leia smiled and laughed a bit. "You are a stereotypical explorer in that way, Alianna."

"There are reasons I wanted to join Starfleet, T'Leia."

"Aside from wanting to get away from your parents?"

The normally fiery young woman shot T'Leia a confused look and then waved off the unasked question. It wasn't abnormal for Vulcans, even half-blooded Vulcans, to put random pieces of information together and reach the correct conclusion. "Yeah. Aside from that." Alianna winced as pain shot through her side again—one of the more violent twinges of pain she'd discovered she was prone to when she was starting to tire—and pushed T'Leia away when she tried to approach. "I'm fine," she managed as the pain passed. "I'm fine."

T'Leia folded her hands back into her sleeves and nodded, knowing it was useless to fight against Alianna's stubbornness. When Alianna was ready, she continued walking and T'Leia fell in step. "Do you want to return to the shelter?"

Alianna shook her head. "No. It's actually not kill-me-hot out today and I would like to enjoy it for a little longer."

There was a pause in the conversation as the two women continued to walk. Alianna filled it by repeatedly fiddling with the black tank top she was wearing and the waistband of her grey-green pants. T'Leia remained walked in a stoic manner, waiting for her charge to pick up the conversation again. As they approached the edge of the settlement however, the opportunity for conversation was dashed. The women were joined by Spock Prime as he pulled away from a group of young Vulcans and T'Leia, taking a silent signal from the older man, went to join the group in his stead. Alianna watched her kneel down amongst the kids, who all seemed a little alarmed by her presence.

"How are you feeling?" he asked after they walked a few steps in silence.

Alianna pulled her eyes away from T'Leia and faced Spock Prime, forcing her lips up in a small smile. "I feel a little better. All this walking and, I guess, the peace, is doing wonders." She flashed a real smile at the older Vulcan and put her hands in her pockets; a stray breeze lifted a few strands of her hair and she pulled her ponytail over her shoulder. "I'm still very tired and the twinges of pain are still pretty frequent, but I feel better."

"That is good to hear, Alianna."

She flashed him a small smile, pleased that Spock Prime had continued calling her by her first name. Alianna walked a few more steps before she stopped and sat down on a particularly flat rock, her feet and lower legs still submerged. Spock Prime lowered himself to the ground beside her, on another flat rock, legs crossed beneath him and hands folded in his lap. "I've been thinking a lot about what you told me about my other self, Spock. I..." Her voice drifted off, unsure of how to voice her desires.

"You would like to know more?" When Alianna nodded, he offered her a small grin. "I suspected as much, Alianna. Your curiosity has not changed through time. Is there anything in particular you would like me to tell you?"

Alianna leaned forward slowly, bracing herself on her knees, waited a moment to see if the position would hurt her, and then sighed slowly, thinking over all the questions she could ask. There was so much she wanted to know about Alianna Prime, but it wouldn't do to just say she wanted to know everything. She looked at Spock Prime, who was watching the water, a calmness about him that she had seen on the younger Spock she knew, and a thought struck her. "The crew of the _Enterprise... _when you came from..." She screwed her face up at the odd phrase she'd chosen to use. "Was the crew the same? Did I... have the same relationships with them in your time?"

Spock Prime's gaze was level and intense. One corner of his lined mouth lifted slightly, as if he was picking up on something unsaid, which he probably was. "The crew of the _Enterprise _I served on was the same." As Alianna's face broke into a relived smile, the Vulcan's content look faltered. "I cannot give you a complete answer about your relationship with the crew however, as, in this timeline, most of them have not had time to form or even take root. You joined the crew of the _Enterprise _in this timeline under circumstances of extreme duress that did not leave time for the conversation required to get to know someone." The elder Vulcan's eyebrow rose in a suggestive manner as he said, "There are obvious exceptions to my observation, however."

The injured security officer visibly bristled and glared at her mentor, much of her usual fire back in her eyes. "That was a mistake!" she snapped, knowing he was referring to the night with Kirk that he had glimpsed during the mind meld. "No one was supposed to know about that."

To Alianna's chagrin, Spock Prime's slightly smug grin did not disappear.

"What is that look for?" she barked, teeth bared in a snarl.

"You said the same thing to me in my timeline after your relationship with Jim turned romantic." Sensing another outburst on the horizon and not wanting Alianna to hurt herself with the exertion, Spock Prime quickly added, "I will not tell anyone."

Alianna seethed for a moment longer before she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She extended her legs in front of her, soaking the backs of her pant legs, and then folded herself back into the loose ball, evidently finding some comfort in the position. She didn't apologize for her outburst, but the anger had diminished quickly; if she had chosen that moment to look back at Spock Prime, she would have seen him smiling slightly to himself. "Continue, please," she said, gesturing vaguely.

Spock Prime nodded and shifted his shoulders minutely, settling into a more comfortable position on the rocks. "You were close with Doctor McCoy in my time, as well as your sister and Jim Kirk. You and the doctor were both fond of countering my more logical suggestions with passionate arguments and neither of you were afraid to voice your opinions regardless of the situation. I believe you two bonded over the time he spent fixing your various injuries."

Alianna smiled against her knee. That sounded like her and Bones, and she was pleased that they were close in the Prime timeline as well. She liked the occasionally bitter man, and when he had bandaged her hand, and taken care of her other ailments, they had always had entertaining conversation.

"You also spent a good deal of time with Mister Scott down in Engineering."

"Why?"

"Because of your close relationship with the Captain, you had adopted his desire to know the ship inside and out." Spock Prime gazed out at the water for a moment, his eyes and mind in the past, remembering his friends and his life.

Alianna turned her head so she could look at her mentor, a small frown pulling at her face. Talking about his timeline was clearly getting to the stoic Vulcan, even if he wasn't showing it very blatantly. Alianna was very curious about the other her, and she wanted to know, but she found herself liking Spock Prime and didn't want to put him through remembering his friends who had passed on if it was bothering him. "We can stop, Spock," she said quietly, trying to put everything she'd just thought into her words.

There was a moment of silence as the Vulcan considered the option of ceasing the tale. He shook his head and offered up a small but warm grin. "That is not necessary, Alianna. I have not spoken about the crew of the _Enterprise _for quite some time, and the memories... I did not expect them to affect me as much as they have." Spock Prime paused for another moment and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he was once again wholly focused on the present, on the woman sitting on the rocks beside him and her need to know about the Prime version of herself. "I will continue, Alianna. Is there anything else you wish to know?"

Alianna sat up straight again, extended her legs into the water and sighed. "Tell me about this close relationship with Kirk," she said hesitantly.

To Alianna's surprise, Spock Prime laughed softly. "Alianna, I don't know if you wish to hear this, but you really are not that different from the Alianna I knew."

Even though she was unsure how she felt about that, Alianna smiled.

Before he answered her question, Spock Prime closed his eyes again and took a deep breath, a calmness sweeping across his face that told Alianna he was about to reveal something she may not like very much. "Your relationship with Jim Kirk was not just close, Alianna," he said in a measured tone. "It was life long." Spock Prime took the stunned silence that followed as licence to elaborate. "For your entire stay at Starfleet Academy and for years afterward, the two of you were hardly separated: you took all the same classes and were both on the command track until you took an interest in security and tactical work." Spock Prime titled his head a fraction, remembering as he spoke. "You two were never apart for long, even when Jim's romantic interests lie elsewhere. Alianna," he said, his voice quiet and calling her to turn her head towards him, "you and Jim were very much part of each other's lives; soul mates, if you wish to use the term."

Alianna's face had turned thoughtful and she hadn't noticed several stray strands of her hair lying across her face. "They had a romantic relationship?" she asked, the words feeling slightly odd in her mouth.

"On and off for years."

"Did they ever get married or have kids or anything like that?" Alianna frowned against her knee, trying to picture herself with kids, or married, or anywhere else but a starship and found she couldn't do it easily.

"No. The Alianna and Jim I knew reached a stable place quite early in their lives and did not move forward, regardless of how close they were." Something changed in Spock Prime's eyes, a minute change that Alianna would have missed had she not been looking at him. "You brought up the idea of a child once. The outcome of that discussion is the only time I can remember you and Jim not speaking for an extended length of time."

Alianna squirmed slightly at the Vulcan's continued use of "you" when referring to Alianna Prime, but didn't say anything, as she wasn't sure what to ask him to say instead; her use of "she" or "they" felt wrong as well. She also squirmed at the idea of being so close to Kirk for her entire life, so committed to their relationship. In an attempt to give herself some time to deal with that, she asked, "Did Alianna—" she frowned again, still unhappy with her phrasing, "—did she serve on any other ships? Or just the _Enterprise_?"

"Just the _Enterprise_, and at Starfleet Academy for a short time. You took your job very seriously, especially when it came to your Captain's security." Alianna squirmed again, prompting Spock Prime to ask, "What's wrong?"

"This Alianna... Her commitment to Kirk..."

"Why does that bother you?"

Alianna screwed up her features, her face still largely pressed against her knee. There was a knot in her gut and it had been getting tighter the more she thought about her and Kirk. "I... don't know..." She pressed her eyes shut almost until it hurt and then let out a long, slow breath. "I don't know, Spock," she said a little more confidently. "Did she know Captain DeFalco?"

Spock Prime showed no reaction to the sudden change in subject. "Not outside of a professional context. You did not serve on the _Marissa _in my timeline."

"Oh."

The elder Vulcan climbed gracefully to his feet, his hands still clasped in front of him. A short-lived and very warm breeze ruffled his robes. "Let us return to your shelter, Alianna. I will make tea and tell you more about yourself."

* * *

_The U.S.S. Enterprise, Prime Timeline._

"Can I refill your glass?"

"You know it." Alianna pulled her refilled glass of technically illegal Romulan ale to her lips and took another luxurious sip, smiling over the rim of the glass at her drinking companion.

"Okay, after that you're cut off," newly-promoted Captain James T. Kirk said, echoing Alianna's smile with one of his own. He laughed at the playful frown she gave him before refilling his own glass. "So I think that meeting went well, don't you?"

Alianna raised an eyebrow at her Captain and friend. The _U.S.S. Enterprise_ was currently involved in the negotiations for a trade route through a heavily patrolled region of Orion space, one that would make business with the outer reaches of the Alpha Quadrant much easier, and they had just come from a meeting with the Orion in charge of trade. It had been a tense affair full of careful political manoeuvring mostly left to Commander Spock and Lieutenant Uhura, while Kirk supervised and Alianna stood in a corner with her security face on and her phaser at her hip. "I suppose, but we agreed to _not _talk about work, Jim. I want a good conversation and a better drink before getting a few hours of shut eye."

Jim touched his chin to his chest in an overdramatic gesture. "Very well."

The officers had become fast and close friends at the Academy and had been together pretty much since the day they'd met in front of the Admirals' offices. They'd served on the _Farragut _together after graduating—thanks largely to some strings pulled my Alianna's mother—and once Jim had been promoted to Captain and given the _Enterprise _to command—much earlier than anyone before him had achieved the title—he'd instantly moved to have Alianna brought on board as his Chief of Security. Even with their increased responsibilities, the friends still found time to have a drink together.

"How are your parents and your brother?" Alianna asked. It was a subject always breached by the pair.

"They're all doing well. My mother was asking after you the last time I spoke to her."

"Oh?" Alianna's eyebrow rose again. "What did Winona say?" Kirk's mother asking after Alianna was not a new occurrence, and she usually wanted to know when her son was going to marry Alianna. Apparently being friends for longer than a few days was a bizarre occurrence with Jim Kirk and, after witnessing the many angry and broken women left by her friend, Alianna couldn't say that she was surprised at Winona's reaction to the female companion her son had managed to keep around for close to ten years.

"The same as always."

"And what date did you tell her this time?"

Jim flashed a dashing smile at his friend, his brown eyes sparkling devilishly. "The day after she stops asking."

Alianna laughed and threw her coaster at Jim, hitting his chest. The square of wood bounced across the floor and rolled under the door into Kirk's sleeping quarters. "Oops," she said. She nearly drained her glass of blue liquid and dropped it on the table top. "Why is it everything I throw ends up rolling under doors?"

Kirk frowned slightly. "What?"

Alianna waved it off. "Nevermind. How's Sam?"

As he always did when he thought of his brother, Kirk smiled warmly. "He's great, although he misses his wife and kids," he said, a bit of a longing tone working its way into his words. Alianna knew that Kirk, regardless of his promiscuous exploits, did want a family of his own one day. "The boys are getting big. And energetic. They don't like to sit still," he said with a smile.

"Huh. They sound like they're taking after their uncle."

Kirk returned Alianna's devious grin and leaned towards her, one elbow on the table. Alianna leaned in as well, still smirking. "Of course they are. They're secretly my children."

Alianna burst into laughter. "Jim, that's horrible!" she exclaimed, falling back into her chair, her elbow toppling the nearly empty glass, sending it to shatter on the floor and the remnants of blue liquid into the carpet. "Shit. Sorry." She dropped to the floor and started gingerly picking up the larger shards of glass. "Apparently I have an issue with drinking alcohol out of glasses actually made of glass... Get me a plastic cup, would you?" she said as Kirk dropped to his knees in front of her.

The young Captain was smiling though, as he lifted shards from the floor. "Do you remember when you broke five glasses that night at the Academy?"

She dropped her head in an attempt to hide the blush that rose to her cheeks and focused very hard on the glass in front of her. "Uhm, yeah, I remember," she said slowly, trying to make her voice sound light and nonchalant. The night in question was one Alianna thought about often, a habit she would never admit to—it was the one and only night in their history that Alianna and Jim had kissed. "Why'd you bring that up?" she asked, again forcing her voice to sound like she was feeling something she wasn't: this time mild and joking curiosity instead of intense alarm and potential embarrassment. Kirk slid his hand across the floor and laid it on top of Alianna's long fingers, wrapping his hand around hers after a second. Alianna finally looked up at Jim, her green eyes wide and her face full of alarm as she asked, "What are you doing?"

Kirk didn't say anything, just kept Alianna's gaze locked with his own, strange thoughts and emotions playing over his handsome face.

Slowly, Alianna pulled her hand out of Kirk's and rolled backward onto her feet, pushing herself upright in one smooth motion that ended with her nearly toppling backwards over her abandoned chair. Kirk watched her move, climbing slowly to his feet after she was standing. He moved towards her and she nearly jumped in her haste to put more space between them, making Jim frown deeply at her strange behaviour. Without either of them saying a word, Alianna backed out of the room, her gaze never leaving her Captain, only stopping at the door where she cast a rather confused look at Kirk before disappearing into the hall.

As her feet hit the different texture of the floor, Alianna stumbled again. She hit the opposite wall with a grunt, cursing as she pushed herself to her feet; clearly she had had more to drink than she thought.

"Ali," Kirk's voice said from the doorway.

She started again, which forced her to grab one of the bulkheads in an attempt to keep her from toppling over. Kirk closed the distance with a few long and sure strides, catching the young woman as her attempt failed and she headed for the ground. She grunted in displeasure and tried to pull away.

"Ali, what the hell is wrong with you?"

Groaning slightly, Alianna pulled back just enough to be able to face the Captain, but not enough to be free of his arms completely. "I can't do this," she gasped. She was still blushing insanely red.

Kirk dropped his arms, letting her back up into the wall completely. "No one is asking you to do anything."

She blinked a few times, but her green eyes still didn't leave the Captain's face. Her chest was rising and falling quite rapidly and at least some of the red in her cheeks was due to her being out of breath. A few crew members walked by, casting their Captain and Alianna furtive glances and Kirk took a few steps back out of habit. Still, the shared gaze didn't break. The air between the pair was rapidly becoming very tense and heavy and Alianna was resisting the urge to squirm.

When the coast was clear, Jim once again stepped close to Alianna, who swallowed hard enough that the motion was clearly visible, and then took a step towards the man who was her closest friend, her hands coming to rest on Kirk's chest when he got too close. As he pressed closer however, the gesture became less about keeping him at bay and more about drawing him closer. He placed his hands lightly on her hips, a tentative touch, waiting to see if she would withdraw again. She bit her bottom lip and he could see the fear in her eyes. They were friends—good friends—and this was a little more than either had probably bargained for.

Alianna leaned forward and placed her forehead on Kirk's chest, just at the base of his neck and just above her hands. She took a deep breath and then slowly lifted her head, her green eyes a little darker than they had been a moment before.

Jim lowered his head and lightly brushed his lips over hers, leaving the next move to her.

Alianna exhaled briefly and then closed the final fraction of distance between them, pressing her lips to those of her Captain, sliding her arms around his neck to pull herself as close as possible. Kirk deepened the kiss and encircled her waist with his arms, one hand sliding up to rest between her shoulder blades.

The sharp sound of someone clearing their throat cut through the moment. Alianna jumped back from Kirk, her cheeks even redder than before.

Spock was standing, with his hands clasped behind his back. He cast a stoic glance at Alianna and then turned his attention to the Captain. "You are needed on the bridge, sir. The Orions are asking for you."

Kirk looked at Spock and nodded. "I'll be right there."

Alianna took that moment to slide past Spock and make her way down the hall towards her quarters, her jaw clamped firmly shut and her hands balled into fists at her sides. That kiss had been a mistake.

* * *

**Author's Note.**

So, I don't like this chapter as much as the first one, but I'm still pretty proud of it. Alianna's been fighting a bit, which is why it took me so long to get this out. I'm not apologizing, since these chapters take a little more effort, but just thought I'd let you know. It's hard to have a good conversation when you're emotionally troubled, but I managed.

Anyways, classes start on Monday so I'm sure my updating will drop, but we'll see. I'll endeavour to keep my publishing thing up, just for all you who read my words.

Enjoy!

**Next Chapter: Rebirth.**


	3. Chapter Three: Rebirth

I still don't own **Star Trek. **I still do own Alianna Lordeck and co-own Sindari Lordeck. This fic comes between **Ain't No Rest For the Wicked** and **The Beginning is the End **and covers plot points from the new movie's timeline and the Prime timeline from the original canon. It's rated for language and violence, mostly. Enjoy.

* * *

**Intermission.  
**Chapter Three: Rebirth.

* * *

_Vulcan Settlement, New Timeline. _

Another week passed without Alianna seeing much of Spock Prime, but just like before, she hadn't felt alone. T'Leia had been her near-constant companion, but as the pain in her sides and back had lessoned, the half-Vulcan's presence had become more about keeping Alianna company than providing her with any medical attention; there were still moments where Alianna was nearly immobilized with pain and T'Leia's well-practiced hands were needed to ease the spasms, but they were few and far between. Alianna spent much of her time talking with T'Leia, either seated somewhere in her cooled shelter or walking through the settlement near the man-made lake where the oppressive heat was a little more tolerable. She did some reading, but her mind was mostly too preoccupied with the information Spock Prime had divulged and the information he might divulge and the questions she might ask for her to focus on her handheld.

Alianna Prime, as she had started referring to her other self, had lived a life that sounded ideal to Alianna, excepting the fact that she never had a family of her own outside the crew of the _Enterprise_. She hadn't had to deal with neglectful parents, she hadn't had to run away from home and take refuge in the care of Joseph DeFalco, she hadn't had to kill her father and she hadn't had to find out her mother had been murdered from her father by her father, just before she shot him. But the fact that Alianna Prime had never had children of her own bothered Alianna, and the revelation that she wanted children and a real family, had shocked her and left her something to chew over.

With the thoughts of children, the boy Alianna had helped save from a dying vessel came to mind. Sage. But almost as soon as the thought had entered her mind, it left. Sage still had family on Earth, a place to return to. Alianna sighed heavily because she still wanted to talk to him and make sure he was doing all right; he had stayed on board the _Enterprise _while Bones was overseeing his recovery.

"T'Leia, is there any way to contact the _Enterprise_?" Alianna asked as the pair continued their trek along the rocky shore of the lake. She adjusted the blanket she had pulled around her shoulders; it was evening and the intense heat of the days on New Vulcan was retreating.

The half-Vulcan, half-Romulan nurse considered the request for a moment, a stray breeze blowing some of her blue-black hair across her face. She tucked the strands behind her pointed ear and said, "I do not know. I'll find out for you."

Alianna nodded her thanks. She stopped walking and turned her face towards the dark waters, her green eyes sliding out of focus as her mind stayed with the thoughts of Alianna Prime. T'Leia stood quietly beside her charge, arms folded into the sleeves of her robe, and watched her, concern lining her face. They stood in silence for many long minutes, the distant noises of the settlement and the crashing of small waves on the rocks at their feet the only noises in the gathering night; for Alianna to remain so still for so long told her, as a distant thought in her mind, that the time spent on New Vulcan, that whatever Spock Prime was doing, was working.

"Alianna, are you all right?" T'Leia asked eventually.

The young officer shook her head slightly to clear her head and then nodded. "I'm all right. Just hungry and my side's bothering me a bit."

T'Leia extended her hand and helped Alianna down off the rock she had ended up on and supported her over the rocks until they were once again walking on the flat paths towards the settlement. Alianna noticed as they walked—even over the pain in her side—that they had walked farther that day than they had before. By the time they had reached her shelter on the opposite side, passing through the very silent houses, Alianna's jaw was clenched and there was a faint sheen of sweat on her forehead as she fought through the pain. T'Leia got her to lay down on the low bed before making her a cup of tea and then examining her injuries, which were healing nicely even as the muscles continued to spasm as the reconstructed themselves.

After the pain had calmed, T'Leia set about making dinner for the two of them, and it was during this time when Alianna, half-asleep on her bed, heard the door slide open and the near-silent movement of Spock Prime as he glided into the small shelter. There were hushed words spoken and then Alianna heard the Vulcans settle on the cushions around the table. Part of her hated being excluded, especially when she knew they would be talking about her, but the larger and more rational part knew that she had to stay in bed at least until her food was finished. She did want to get better as soon as possible so that she could get back on the _Enterprise_ and get back to work. Several minutes after Spock Prime's entrance, T'Leia came into the room and informed Alianna that the replicator was finished replicating.

There was a light meal on the table, two places set for Spock Prime and Alianna. As Alianna settled herself, she looked around for T'Leia but found the nurse had disappeared, as she always seemed to when Spock Prime was there to keep his eye on Alianna. She ate quietly, the sun setting and the purplish darkness that was as trademark as the orange sky above New Vulcan taking hold. Spock Prime ate his food slowly, waiting for Alianna to start their conversation, as he usually did.

"Is there a way to contact the _Enterprise_?" she asked once she had finished.

"Other than sending a subspace message, no, there is not. They are too far from this planet to get a transmission to them. Is there something wrong?"

Alianna looked at the wrinkled face of the old Vulcan and sighed. "Not especially. I... I just miss them."

Spock Prime nodded knowingly. "How is your recovery going?"

"Well. The pain only comes sometimes, usually after I go walking, but I'm sleeping through the night now, and the spasms are much shorter and bearable." Alianna put a small smile on her face. "I'm glad to have T'Leia," she said. "Thank you."

"There is no need to thank me, Alianna. I am pleased you are finding some comfort here."

The small smile grew until it reached her bright green eyes. She ran her fingers back through her hair, which she was wearing loose, and then turned the smile on Spock Prime. "I am comfortable. I'm _calm_." The realization brought real happiness to her and, at least temporarily, chased away the desire to contact Sage and to return to the _Enterprise_; she still wanted to go back, but she found she was enjoying the time on New Vulcan, the time in peace, something she'd never thought she'd find any solace in. "Why is telling me about Alianna Prime working? Why is it helping me feel calm?" she asked.

Spock Prime smiled at her, his dark eyes sparkling with a slight mischievousness that was no doubt born of his human blood. "By making you turn your thoughts inward," he said simply. He pushed himself to his feet and removed the dishes from the table, returning quickly with the tea cups now present whenever they spoke, almost as if the liquid was needed to facilitate the more intellectual atmosphere Alianna's conversations with Spock took place in. "By telling you about Alianna Prime, as you refer to your other self, I have given you the desire to look inward and compare your life to the life you could have had. You are not someone who spends a lot of time in self-reflection and that is what you need in order to sort out the anger and sadness you've kept bottled inside for so long."

Alianna realized that she had been expecting more mind melds, more hands-on teaching, but she wasn't displeased to find that learning to control her anger was something she was doing by herself, under the watchful eyes of and guided by Spock Prime, a being with hundreds of years of experience. "You figured out what I needed from the mind meld?"

"Yes."

She finished her tea and set the cup on the table and then pulled her hair over one shoulder and ran her fingers through the ends of it, her face turning thoughtful. "Is there anything else you can tell me about Alianna Prime?"

Spock Prime considered the question. "Would you like to hear of some important events the crew of the _Enterprise _experienced?"

"Sure."

"First, I will tell you of the Genesis Project, which we came into contact with after we had all retired from active travel and were occupying other positions around the galaxy. I had been on Vulcan with my people for several years after the _Enterprise's _original mission came to an end and I rejoined the crew during the V'Ger Encounter, when Jim took control of the ship from the young man it had been given to. V'Ger was an old Earth satellite named Voyager that had been sent into deep space to gather information," Spock Prime explained when Alianna had given him a curious look. "As the original machine gathered knowledge, it grew and became sentient." He paused to take a sip of his tea. When he continued, there was a hardness to his dark eyes that hadn't been there before, like the memories were uncomfortable or painful. "After the resolution of the V'Ger threat, we were faced with a being we had not considered a possible threat, a genetically enhanced human by the name of Kahn." The name came with a lot of weight.

"Kahn," Alianna repeated, committing the name to memory as she drew her knees to her chest and pulled her blanket tighter around herself.

"Kahn. Somehow, Kahn had come into possession of knowledge of the Genesis Project and killed many on the station Regula 1, where it was under development, in order to obtain it. He did not succeed, and in the ensuing battle, I was killed."

Alianna blinked and stared at the man across from her. "What? What the hell did this Genesis Project do?"

"Unleashed on a lifeless planet, the Genesis Project was supposed to turn it into a paradise."

"And if it was unleashed on a planet with life? What then? Would it wipe out everything living?"

Spock Prime nodded, his eyes still hard as he took in Alianna's horrified gasp and the alarmed look on her face. "This is why it was so fundamental to retrieve the Project before Kahn could use it to wipe out life on Earth."

Alianna reigned herself in, cleared her throat and re-bundled the blanket around her, suddenly chilly; it was not the kind of chill that could be warded off by coverings. "So... how did you come back to life?" she asked, the words as awkward on her mouth as it had originally had been when asking about Alianna Prime.

"In accordance with Starfleet protocol, my body was encased in an empty torpedo case and launched into space. I landed on the planet that the Genesis Project later landed on and was brought to life with the planet," he answered calmly, the harshness leaving his face, brought back under his impeccable control. "However, the Project was unstable and the planet soon destabilized and was destroyed. I was rescued before I could be destroyed with it, by a Vulcan woman named Saavik and a young man who gave his life to protect us named David Marcus. He was Jim Kirk's son."

If Alianna had had tea to drink, she would have spit it out. She knew there was no reason to be as surprised as she was that Kirk had had a family—it wasn't even the Kirk she knew—but for some reason she was shocked. Her reaction earned a small chuckle from Spock Prime. "Tell me about him," she demanded, her voice coming out harsher than she had meant it, but she did not apologize.

"Carol Marcus and Jim Kirk met when they were young and had a brief relationship. She was a brilliant woman who went on to be a scientist with Starfleet and she became quite well-known. When her relations with Jim produced a son, David, she did not tell him as she did not want her son to take after his father and become an explorer. Jim did not find out about David until the conflict with Kahn and he did not have time to develop the relationship I believe he wanted with his son." Spock Prime stopped and looked across the table at Alianna, who was once again calm and curled up in the blanket with her back against the wall. "I will get you more tea." He returned a few moments later, before Alianna had the time to fall into the thoughts that were running through her mind, and handed her the mug she had been using, once again full of steaming liquid. "David was killed by a Klingon who was interested in getting the Genesis Project for the Empire."

"Let me guess—Kirk hated the Klingons."

Spock Prime nodded. "His opposition to them and his actions in killing the Klingons on the Genesis Planet, as well as the false charge of murdering the Klingon ambassador who was pursuing peace with the Federation, led to his later imprisonment on Rura Penthe with Doctor McCoy. Of course," he continued, his voice taking on a lighter tone, "his imprisonment was part of a plot to halt that peace indefinitely."

Alianna raised an eyebrow as she sipped her tea. "What happened?"

"There were several parties involved, none of which wanted peace between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, so they planned on killing those involved in negotiations at the summit. The Klingons had developed a ship that fire while cloaked and was using this technique to manufacture the conflict that killed the Klingon ambassador and landed Jim in prison. They saw him as the only one capable of stopping the rebellion. They did not count on him escaping."

Alianna nodded vaguely. "That sounds like Kirk..."

"What is wrong?"

"That situation sounds similar to what my father did..." Alianna felt her eyes narrow as she remembered the actions of her father, of his ill-fated attempt to try and take down the Federation with the help of a shaky alliance with a rogue Klingon faction. Her jaw clenched against the anger she felt bubbling inside and she balled her hands into fists around the blanket. A moment ago, she had felt so calm and collected, something she hadn't felt in a long time, and in the blink of an eye, it was all gone, all the anger she was used to holding inside had come back.

Spock Prime didn't say anything or do anything. He just watched Alianna and remained still, although he was ready to jump to assistance should it be needed, but unlike when she'd lost it after the mind meld, Alianna seemed to curl in on her anger. She didn't let herself scream or shout or anything. Alianna's control broke when she began to cry however and the ball tightened around the sobs; the tears were an improvement over her former methods of dealing with anger—screaming, fighting, breaking things—but her sobs were still violent and loud and her shoulders still shook. After a moment, spots of blood blossomed on the blanket from around her firsts where her nails were digging into her palms and it was then that Spock Prime gently placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Take a deep breath, Alianna."

As she inhaled, Alianna sat up, revealing a deeply flushed face streaked with tears. Her bright green eyes were so wide that white could been seen all the way around and there were a few flecks of blood on her face as she had been so wrapped around herself that her hands hand touched her face. Spock Prime reached forward with the edge of the blanket and wiped the blood from her cheeks, the tears dissolving from tears of anger to tears of sadness as he did so, as he showed the girl the compassion not many took the time to show her.

"Why did your father's actions make you so angry?" he asked in a quiet tone.

"Aside from him betraying the Federation? Everything I stand for? Everything I care about? Aside from him never acting like a father?" Alianna's tears had stopped but her jaw was clenching repeatedly and she seemed to have forgotten about Spock Prime sitting close by. "He betrayed me and Sindari, he killed our mother, he... he was a horrible, hateful person who deserved to die."

"And you killed him."

Alianna looked at him, her eyes still wide. "And I killed him. I killed the son-of-a-bitch, but I shouldn't have had to." Alianna closed her eyes momentarily and took a series of deep breaths. "Why did I have to kill him? I shouldn't have had to do that. I shouldn't have been the one to kill my father."

"No, you should not have been the one."

Tears started to fall again, but they were calmer, tears of pure sadness, of the grief she hadn't shown about having to kill her father. When those tears had subsided, the blood on her palms had stopped flowing and she seemed nearly calm again, or maybe empty was a more appropriate word. "Can you tell me more about David Marcus?" she asked when her voice was clear. She wrapped the blanket around herself again and Spock Prime pulled his cushion over so he could sit closer to her.

"I will tell you what happened after he died."

"Why would you tell me that?"

"Because it is part of who you were in my timeline and, as Jim did not want to be alone during this time, I saw this exchange and I saw how important this moment was for the two of you."

_Starfleet Personnel Apartments, Prime Timeline _

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* * *

_

Alianna, older and, she hoped, wiser than the girl who had been on the _Enterprise _with Jim Kirk all those years ago, stood alone in her apartment, making herself a simple dinner to enjoy before she settle down in front of the television to enjoy the evening. Teaching at the Academy was enjoyable, but it wasn't exploring the galaxy and it was about as far you could get from the bridge of the _Enterprise _which she missed so much. She was a security officer, not a teacher and she was bored.

With her meal complete, Alianna moved across the decent-sized apartment and settled herself in her favourite chair with her plate on her lap and her greying ponytail draped gracefully over one shoulder as it so often was. Just as she had the television turned onto the station she wanted and was about to dig in, there was a chime that brought a smile to her face and generated a furiously intense ray of hope—it was an incoming message on her private terminal, the one that would be used if there was some emergency, something that needed her attention; that part of her was hoping for an emergency bothered her, but only in a very small way. She dropped her plate on the desk beside the terminal and slid into the chair, doing her best to appear professional in front of the screen as she flicked it on.

_"Ali?" _

It was Jim Kirk, her best friend and the last person she expected to see on the other end of that call. She settled back into the chair and crossed her arms, putting a suitably grumpy expression on her face. "What? Finally calling to apologize for not taking me with you on your illegal adventures? Stealing the _Enterprise_, going off to save Spock and the universe, putting yourself in mortal danger and you don't take me with you?"

_"Ali, my son is dead." _

That shut her up. She stared at the terminal screen, mouth slightly agape and eyes wide. "Son?" she gasped. _"Son?" _To Kirk, who knew Alianna so well, it would be obvious that she was angry and frustrated and shocked and a whole myriad of other emotions, but to those not so quite as well acquainted, she would just looked pissed off. "Carol?" she asked knowingly. She wasn't pleased when he nodded. Alianna studied her friend for a few moments, the greying tone of his hair, the lines on his face; she knew something in him had broken with the loss of his son, even if he hadn't known him. "Tell me," she said after a moment.

So he did. Alianna listened as Kirk told her the whole story of David Marcus, how he was intelligent—a scientist like his mother—and how he was brave and how he had given his life to protect Saavik and the newly reborn Spock. When he had finished speaking, there were tears in his eyes, but also a look of admiration and pride on his face.

"Well," Alianna said, her mind still on the young man's self-sacrificing end, "At least you know he took after you."

Kirk gave her a sad smile, a silent thank you.

"I can get out to the _Enterprise _if you need me to, Jim."

The next smile was no less sad, but significantly more amused. _"There is not more _Enterprise_,"_ he said, _"Not right now. I had to do it,"_ he continued, speaking over any potential objections Alianna could have voiced. _"It was the only way we could take out the Klingons on board without losing any of the crew." _

Adding flabbergasted to her emotional gumbo, Alianna nodded. "All right... Well, where are you? I can get there, somehow, if you need me to." She knew, Kirk knew, every one of the long-standing members of the crew knew, that the _Enterprise_ the ship may be gone, but there was more to the iconic reputation that the ship and crew had; a very large part of her wanted to go to Kirk regardless of what he said because those connections would make him feel better, to have his friends and the family of the _Enterprise _around him.

Kirk seriously seemed to consider telling her where he was, but he didn't. Instead, he said, _"It wouldn't be a good idea for you to come out here, Ali. We're technically fugitives." _

"So?" she snorted.

_"Ali, just trust me. I'll see you when I get back to Earth." _

Alianna sighed and leaned forward, across the desk to place her hand, fingers spread, against the screen. "You're making me worry, Jim," she whispered.

_"I know." _

"I miss you."

Kirk leaned forward as mirrored Alianna's gesture, pressing his palm against his screen, wherever he was, however he was getting the transmission to her. _"I miss you too, Ali."_

Against her will, tears bubbled at the corner of Alianna's eyes and started to crawl down her cheeks. She wasn't exactly sure why she was crying—sure, she was worried and sad—but she wasn't sure what had triggered the tears. Her fingers flexed against the screen. "Don't get in anymore trouble without me."

Kirk laughed. _"I'll try not to. And don't cry." _

"I'll try not to." She sobbed and did her best to stop the tears. Thankfully, she had years of practice and was able to reign in her emotions. "Just be careful Jim, and damn it, get back here."

"I will."

After a brief moment where they simply looked at each other, Kirk ended the transmission and Alianna turned off her own terminal, leaning forward to put her forehead against the desk, the forgotten television chattering in the background and her forgotten dinner growing cold beside her head. She sat there for a long time, fighting off the images of Kirk and the rest of the crew that had run off with him dying in horrid ways as they tried to get back to Earth. She could call Sindari, but her sister was off-planet, so it would just be a hassle, so she was left to try and ignore her thoughts. Untrue as it may have been, Alianna felt that if she was on whatever ship was substituting for the _Enterprise, _she could have made sure the crew, _her _crew got home safe.

* * *

**Author's Note.**

So, it's done, yay! There are two more chapters of this fic and then there's the Christmas fic, then... well, I'm not really sure what's going to happen because I haven't planned anything else yet. I'll probably work on my other fics.

I don't think there are any complaints for me to address this time around, so just enjoy this chapter.

AND be excited for it almost being Canadian Thanksgiving! I'm excited for turkey and a long weekend, that's for sure.

I'm starting to have assignments due for school, so the updating might slow, but I'll do my best to keep the chapters coming, but school has to come first. *responsible*

Ya, right.

**Next Chapter: Relapse.**


	4. Chapter Four: Relapse

I still don't own **Star Trek. **I still do own Alianna Lordeck and co-own Sindari Lordeck. This fic comes between **Ain't No Rest For the Wicked** and **The Beginning is the End **and covers plot points from the new movie's timeline and the Prime timeline from the original canon. It's rated for language and violence, mostly. Enjoy.

* * *

**Intermission.  
**Chapter Four: Relapse.

* * *

_Vulcan Settlement, New Timeline. _

It was a particularly hot day, even for Hell. It had been hot since Alianna had arrived, but that day there seemed to be a few extra degrees floating around and the air hurt as she gasped it down, but she was doing her best to ignore it, to take solace and comfort in the meagre breeze the terraformed lake offered. As she rose from touching her toes for the third time, she let her bright green eyes wander outward, across the softly rippling water and contemplated jumping in as she had many times before and wondered how cool the water would actually be, after having baked all day under the hot sun and orange sky—_that damn colour probably makes it feel hotter, _Alianna mused, turning her eyes upward.

As she bent forward to touch her toes again, she caught a glimpse of T'Leia meditating on a rock several feet away, her hands folded and index fingers pointing out across the lake. A few days ago, the half-Vulcan had tried to teach Alianna the proper way to meditate, but the Starfleet officer had just found her thoughts continuously wandering into the Prime Timeline and that hadn't been very relaxing.

She was put off by the connection Alianna Prime had had to Kirk Prime. The way her other self had seemed to calculate her movements to fit Kirk, the way she had rearranged her life to better accommodate the Captain, made her wonder if Alianna Prime hadn't had a life of her own because she's been too busy playing Security Chief to Kirk's Captain, even when they were away from the _Enterprise. _Alianna was determined not to let herself end up like that, even if she did crave the freedom Alianna Prime had had access to in her childhood—_nothing to be done about the past, Alianna. Get over it. _She bent forward and wrapped her fingers around her bare toes for the fifth and final time and sucked in a deep breath as she straightened, lacing her fingers and pressing her palms towards the sky.

Alianna pushed her hands upwards until it began to hurt. In retrospect, she would realize that wasn't the best idea, but in the moment, she pushed a little too far and her side gave a vicious lurch, pain lancing through her muscles and spreading until she could no longer remain upright. She screamed and doubled over, knees striking the rock and knocking the breath from her lungs, her cries turning to gulps for the hot air.

T'Leia was at her side in seconds, her hands gently pushing Alianna's away from the area and lifting her shirt to expose freshly bruised skin as blood seeped from whatever had snapped inside. "You're bleeding," T'Leia informed her charge grimly. She pulled a communicator from one of the pockets of her robe and flipped it open. "Spock, Alianna is hurt. We're out by the lake."

In no time at all, there was a small team of Vulcans around Alianna, including Spock Prime, and she was being gently cradled in the arms of one of the Vulcans she'd seen around the settlement and carried swiftly back towards the clutch of buildings, one of the larger ones in particular, the one that she knew was the medical centre. Alianna tried to focus on her surroundings instead of the pain—a line of cubicle-like rooms made up of curtains; pale, bluish metal walls; various medical machines that she didn't know the use or name of—but someone gave her a hypospray that brought her attention back to her body, back to the pain and she screamed again.

"Alianna," Spock Prime's voice cut through the din of movement around her and her bright green eyes found him, wide with shock and pain. "Alianna, take deep breaths."

She obeyed and sucked in a breath of climate controlled air that felt good. The air allowed the sedatives she had been injected with to penetrate passed the adrenaline and knock her into oblivion.

When she awoke, she was still lying in the hospital biobed, being monitored by the built-in sensors. She felt tired and heavy and like any movement would be impossible. Luckily, someone had thought to raise her bed so she was lying in a half-reclined position and she was able to see the room around her. Spock Prime entered the room at that moment and pulled one of the stools up to the side of the bed so she could more easily see and talk to him, should she be so inclined and Spock Prime knew she would be.

"Drink," she croaked.

The older Vulcan produced a cup of water from somewhere and angled the straw towards Alianna's mouth. Uninterested in feeling like an invalid, she focused on her arm and found the heaviness was an illusion; she brought her hand up and took the cup from Spock Prime. Alianna drank deeply for a moment and then heaved a sigh of satisfaction. She wiggled each of her appendages and then stretched slightly, not wanting to test the newly repaired injury.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Tired and numb." Alianna took another drink. "And sad."

"Sad?"

She sighed. "I don't know... Yeah, I guess sad is the right word. Spock, I miss the _Enterprise _and her crew. I miss my sister." Tears welled in her eyes and she scowled. "Is this because of the medication?" she asked, gesturing towards her face.

Spock Prime nodded. "The tears will pass with the medication, but the emotions will not. A message was sent to the _Enterprise. _They entered transmission range while you were sleeping and are on their way. They should be here tomorrow and you can go home," Spock Prime said.

Alianna smiled and nodded a small nod. "Good." As her thoughts drifted towards the _Enterprise _in full force however, a nasty thought clawed its way to the forefront of her mind. "How bad is it?" she asked, voice a little tight with emotion. There was the possibility, if her injury was bad enough and didn't want to heal, that she would never be able to serve active duty aboard a starship again. If that was the case, she wasn't sure what she would do with herself. Starfleet—and her sister—were all she really had left. "How bad is my injury?"

The small smile Spock Prime gave her let her know it couldn't be as bad as she was dreading. "Our doctor was able to stop the bleeding. One of the repairs Doctor McCoy made broke under the strain of repeated stretching," he informed her. "But you should not worry. Logically, you will be able to return to active duty after resting for a while longer, and I should think your stubbornness will play a factor. I do not think there is much that would keep you from your work." Spock Prime seemed to consider saying something else. After another moment, he added, "I have seen you come back from worse injuries and I do not think your Prime self is so different that that factor would have changed."

Alianna frowned. "What do you mean?"

He produced a tray of food and, in avoidance of her answer, said, "You should eat. You will need strength to heal and to get back to Earth."

She frowned, but didn't push the issue for the moment. Instead, she took the tray on her lap once she was sitting fully upright and swallowed a bite of whatever the dish was. As she swallowed another mouthful of water, she said, "I think I'll be here for a while yet, Spock."

"I disagree. Your wound should not reopen as long as you rest, and you can do that anywhere."

Another frown graced her features. She showed Spock Prime her still-braced finger. "As you can see, I am not the most patient when it comes to injuries. I don't like just lying around."

"You never did."

The comment had the tone of someone remembering something sad, something hard to think about, and Alianna inexplicably knew it was related to the injury Spock Prime had mentioned before and didn't want to talk about. Giving him another moment to think about telling her before she pressed, Alianna turned to another topic. "What about my anger management training or whatever?"

Spock Prime raised his eyebrows. "Have you felt very angry since you've been here?"

Aside from a few incidents that had been more cathartic than enraging, the answer was no. Most of her time on New Vulcan had been conducted in peace. She had had time to consider the things that made her angry and time to figure them out, and the common denominator was that all of her hot-button issues—her neglectful and bitter parents, her unhappy and unfulfilling childhood, and the more recent issue with the Klingons—well, they were all in the past. They couldn't be changed, they couldn't be fixed and they couldn't be erased. The only thing to be done was to learn from those incidents—and to learn from what Spock Prime had told her about the Alianna he'd known—and move on. She knew she wouldn't repeat any of those mistakes, not after having lived through them, not after being afraid of how those mistakes would affect those she called friends. New Vulcan and Spock Prime had given her the time and the tools to move on from what ailed her.

"Okay, so I guess that's not an issue." She took a few more bites of food around a smile, and then finished her water; Spock Prime immediately refilled her glass from a pitcher on a table she hadn't noticed before. "If you're not going to explain the earlier insinuation about me and my copious injuries, Spock, will you tell me more about Alianna Prime?"

Spock nodded. "Would you like to know more about Kirk and yourself?"

Alianna thought about that question. "Yes." She would like to know more, but she had pieced together most of what that life would have been like. Close friends who loved each other as perhaps more, but who would never act on those feelings, even though they were never far apart, always finding something to put between them, to keep that last shred of distance even as they fought hard to protect each other. She didn't want the story. Alianna wanted the conclusion. "Tell me how... tell me how they died." At the raised eyebrow Spock Prime gave her, she floundered for an explanation. "I... I need to know how it ended," was the best she could come up with.

It seemed to be enough for Spock.

* * *

_Starfleet Academy Security Office, Prime Timeline _

The _Enterprise-B_ did not deserve the name.

Alianna scowled down at the report on her desk, at the images and statistics of the remodelled ship and had the very real urge to toss the entire file into the trash or light it on fire. She slid the main image away, watching it as the paper moved. It looked like her ship, but it wasn't the _Enterprise_; it was nothing, especially without Kirk at the helm. She scowled again, including a dissatisfied grunt in the gesture, and picked up the image to study it through narrowed eyes, doing her best to ignore the coloured panels on the hull and the _B _after the identification number.

It wasn't the _Enterprise_.

She knew she was just being bitter. Alianna was mad that she couldn't serve on the ship anymore; that she was technically retired from active duty, and to her, the _Enterprise_ belonged to James Kirk more than it did to Starfleet, which was an absurd concept, but there it was. Her bitterness was fuelled by the fact that she had been excluded from the last missions of the iconic _Enterprise_, having been confined to desk duty thanks to a stubborn cold and a flock of privates to train in security protocols, and that she hadn't seen anyone from the original crew in a while. They were all off doing their jobs, mostly on other parts of the Academy campus, and they never seemed to have any time to meet up. Teaching was a busy job.

Alianna rose from her desk and crossed the room to the corner where the replicator sat to get a cup of coffee. As she walked, her mind drifted back to the last mission about the _Enterprise _that she'd been a part of.

The last mission she had gone on hadn't even involved everyone in the original crew, but it had included herself and Kirk; Sindari had been slated to go as well, but she had withdrawn at the last minute, finding out that she was pregnant again and wanting to run the usual battery of tests right away. The _Enterprise _had gone to the planet Mestiko, a planet that had been subjected to a supernova blast, the near destruction of the Payav race, a kind of civil war and a failed reconstruction attempt by the races of the Federation. Raya elMora had been in a position of power and was the Federation's pick to lead the race as they got back on their feet and thought about joining the Federation. Alianna had been there when she'd been returned to her power, and she'd been there to witness the flirtation between the exotic woman and Kirk, even if they did end up fighting and not speaking. Alianna had quite liked Raya and had been happy to be a part of her return to power.

Warm cup of caffeine in her hands, she returned to her desk just as the terminal binged, indicating there was a message coming in. She dropped into her chair and accepted the message, the screen flickering to life and revealing Bones and Spock, the last faces I'd expected to see. "Long time no see gentlemen," she said with a small smile. She was happy to see her friends, especially on the day of the dedication of the new _Enterprise_. Her smile faltered when she saw no joy in her friend's faces. "What is it?" she asked, sitting forward.

_"It's Jim,"_ Bones said quietly.

Alianna set the coffee down before she dropped it. "What?"

_"The ship picked up a distress call at the dedication ceremony." _

Spock picked up the explanation when Bones couldn't; Alianna's heart lurched. She was pretty sure she knew what was coming. _"During the attempted rescue of two civilian vessels, the ship took heavy damage. In order to get the _Enterprise _and the civilian vessel to safety, Jim had to make some manual adjustments. The anomaly that had been causing the distress hit the ship and Jim… Jim has died, Alianna." _

Alianna didn't say anything for what felt like a very long time. She sat still, except for her right hand clenching and unclenching, and stared at the viewer without actually seeing either of her friends' faces.

Jim was dead.

Jim was _dead. _

_Jim was dead._

She couldn't make the thought process. It couldn't be true. There had to have been some mistake. James Tiberius Kirk could not be gone. He just couldn't.

As if reading her mind, Bones said, _"It's true Ali. He's gone." _

Her jaw moved up and down, but no words came out for another moment. "What's… what's the plan?" she asked eventually, her voice barely audible to the men on the viewer.

_"We are meeting at Jim's apartment tonight," _Spock said. _"We will all be there." _

There was no need to ask who "we" was. It was the original crew. Spock, Bones, Sulu, Uhura, Scotty, Chekov... Alianna and Sindari would be there and probably a few others who had been around since the beginning. Alianna nodded. "I'll see you later then," she said before clicking the monitor off and ending the transmission.

With her office humming in silence, Alianna sat at her desk, still staring at the blank monitor, her forgotten coffee growing cold on the desktop beside her and the forgotten file of the _Enterprise-B _still strewn around. Everything was forgotten except the face of Jim Kirk that she couldn't get out of her mind. She saw him as she had last, smiling and laughing as they shared a meal and a drink, just as they did every week. It hadn't been a memorable occasion at the time, but now it seemed like it was everything.

Thinking of that night, Alianna pushed herself to her feet and walked in a sort of trance out of her office, down the hall and across the campus to the staff apartments, ignoring everyone and everything until she was in her apartment, the door shut and locked behind her. As the deadbolt—yes, she had insisted on the old-fashioned lock in addition to the new computerized ones—clicked into place, everything just seemed to drain from Alianna and she slipped to the ground, her back against the door and seemingly no breath in her lungs. She kept staring ahead at nothing, seeing Jim's face everywhere, hearing his laugh, smelling his cologne.

_I can't do this here. I have to be where he still is. _

The thought might not have made a whole lot of sense, but it spurred Alianna to get to her feet again and cross the apartment to her bedroom, where she pulled out a thick green sweater that was a couple sizes too big, and her favourite jeans—comforting clothes. She bound her hair in a tight pony tail and then started for the door again, remembering just in time to retrieve her keys and ID card from her uniform.

She had to get to Kirk's apartment, where parts of him would still linger. It had been too long since he'd been in her apartment, too long for there to be anything left, anything to cling to. Eager to find something of Kirk, she all but ran through her building and across the near kilometre to where Jim's larger apartment laid—the reward of being an admiral, Alianna supposed. By the time she reached the door of Jim's home, she was breathing heavily and it took her several minutes of panicked fumbling with the keys to get the right one and unlock the door. Inside, she sucked in a deep breath and then closed the door behind her. There was something deeply satisfying about that breath, cathartic even. She felt the emotion well and she let it, knowing there wouldn't be many people in the rooms around her since it was the middle of the day. Alianna let the memories of Kirk come to the surface and she let the tears roll down her cheeks as she made her way around the apartment.

The antiques he had collected over the years didn't bring specific memories—just the general feel of Jim all over the rooms. The guns, the books, even some of the furniture. Alianna's eyes slid over the pictures on the walls, pictures of his late brother and his family, Jim's parents, the original _Enterprise _crew, his graduating class… She stepped close to the wall, smiling through the tears as his face smiled back at her, years younger and still at the Academy. She remembered when they first met, how he had made her laugh even though she had been pretty embarrassed; the hours and hours spent studying in his dorm because Alianna's roommate hadn't liked Jim very much after he had slept with her and never called or anything; the late nights when they would stay up drinking at the campus bar and the walks they would take afterward, somehow always ending up by the water…

Alianna forced herself to move on, the tears streaming down her face in torrents now. She wiped her nose on her sleeve and tried to keep herself from hyperventilating as she took a deep breath.

In the living area, she found the last book she'd loaned him—_Return of the Native_ by Thomas Hardy—and his antique glasses folded atop the book. Bones had bought the glasses for him for his birthday a few years ago to help his vision. He couldn't have the standard Retinax V medication because he was allergic to it. She picked up the book and the glasses and held them to her chest, doing the same with the blanket on the back of the couch, the one Jim had always used when he fell asleep reading the couch.

Alianna's feet carried her to the bedroom before she felt too worn to go any farther. She set the book and the glasses on the bedside table and then wrapped the blanket around her, bunching some in her hands and holding it to her face to take a deep breath, even as she lay down, nestling into the pillows. She rolled onto her side and found another picture, one that broke the last shred of control.

A young Alianna and Kirk, laughing with their cheeks pressed together and their faces very close to the camera. The look in her younger self's eyes told Alianna that she had already been in love with Kirk then, although she hadn't known it.

"You can't be gone," she whispered, brushing her fingertips across the picture and smudging the glass above Kirk's face. "You can't be gone…" She pulled the picture towards her and used the blanket to wipe the smudge away. "You're James Tiberius Kirk," she told the picture with a small smile. "You can't die." Alianna sobbed once, loudly, and placed the picture on the bed beside her where she could still see it and then she let herself cry, loud and uncontrolled, the wails that normally would have embarrassed her, wails that would have sounded less out of place had they been coming from a child, not even getting a second thought. Something in Alianna had broken.

She wasn't sure how long she cried—she didn't notice much while she lay there, on Kirk's bed, but she did notice when the mattress sank under the pressure of another body. A hand appeared on her leg and she knew it was her sister. Alianna sat up and welcomed the hug that was waiting, pulled Sindari close to her and crying into the younger woman's shoulder. Another hand appeared on her shoulder: Bones, her sister's husband and one of Jim's closest friends. Alianna wasn't afraid to cry in front of these people, and she wasn't afraid to cry when Spock showed up. She rose to her feet to face the Vulcan, pausing only a moment before she wrapped her arms around the man who was probably Jim's best friend and hugged him. He placed a hand on the back on her head and held her to him in a gesture of comfort that was only slightly awkward.

It didn't take long for the others to show up; all dressed for comfort and faces heavy with emotion. There were a few moments of strained greetings and hugs before everyone gathered in the living room, a picture of the crew on the bridge of the _Enterprise _on the coffee table, a picture from the early days, a picture that brought smiles to all the faces.

Bones produced a bottle of technically illegal Romulan Ale—Jim had loved the stuff—and poured everyone a glass from the mismatched collection that filled Jim's cupboard. When everyone had some of the blue liquor in front of them, they raised their glasses and the doctor said, "To Jim Kirk. Friend, Captain… Family," and they all drank, Scotty making the extra motion of pouring some of the ale onto the floor for Jim.

The friends all sat around the living room after that, talking and sharing their memories of Jim, finishing the two bottles of Romulan Ale that Bones had managed to procure. After a few moments, the reminiscing became too much for Alianna—she wasn't ready to laugh yet. She made her way onto the balcony and leaned on the railing, glass clutched in her hands and grey-streaked brown hair blowing around her face as the wind dried the tears on her cheeks. Spock joined her.

"He's really gone," Alianna breathed.

"Yes," Spock said. "But he is not forgotten."

Alianna sighed and then forced a small smile as she looked at her Vulcan companion. "Did you really just give me the most overused line ever?"

Spock raised an eyebrow and returned her small smile.

The woman who had been head of security on the _Enterprise_ gave the barest chuckle before she turned serious once more and sighed, the noise fraught with tears. "Spock, there's so much I regret when it comes to Jim and I. How am I supposed to deal with that? How am I supposed to handle the fact that there was so much I never got to tell him?"

"I would not regret anything, Alianna. You were very special to Jim and I know he valued deeply his relationship with you. He often said if things had gone a little differently, he could have seen you two with a family."

At that Alianna barked a laugh. "Yeah right. I don't think either of us would have been able to stay still long enough to set down any sort of roots." She drained her glass. _The thought's nice, _she admitted to herself, even as images of her and Kirk with a family floated through her mind. _But it never would have happened. _No sense dwelling on what could never be now.

"Perhaps not." After a moment he added, "Alianna, do not forget what you had with Jim."

"I could never forget it. Or him."

* * *

**Author's Note.**

So it's a little sad and a little morbid, but it's something that Alianna has to face.

I'm going to apologize for any mistakes. It's 3:13am as I'm writing this and I'm just now starting to feel tired. Alianna was yelling at me earlier today though, so I just had to get this out to shut her up. There are school things I have to work on and sometimes muses have trouble understanding responsibility. They're not here to help us be responsible, after all. They're here to help us be creative and to express ourselves. Or express the ranting of enraged Starfleet officers in our heads. You know, whatever works.

Anyways, there is just one chapter left. I hope you're still enjoying this fic, because I really like writing it. Exploring the "canon" version of Alianna (a.k.a. the one that goes with the original stuff) is a lot of fun. Especially because I'll never write a fic of Ali that goes with the Prime timeline. There's just too much to wade through.

Enjoy this chapter please! I'll try to make the last chapter some kind of epic.

**Next Chapter: Reinvention.**


	5. Chapter Five: Reinvention

I still don't own **Star Trek. **I still do own Alianna Lordeck and co-own Sindari Lordeck. This fic comes between **Ain't No Rest For the Wicked** and **The Beginning is the End **and covers plot points from the new movie's timeline and the Prime timeline from the original canon. It's rated for language and violence, mostly. Enjoy.

* * *

**Intermission.  
**Chapter Five: Reinvention.

* * *

_Vulcan Settlement, New Timeline. _

Alianna slept for the rest of her first day in the hospital and most of her second day, dreamlessly and without moving much. When she awoke—aside from being stiff and sore and grumpy—the room was still the same sterile room, but there was a large tray laden with wonderful-smelling food and as she breathed in the scents, her stomach rumbled and she realized that she was famished. She hadn't eaten in a very long time. With a careful bit of manoeuvring, she managed to get the tray into her lap and started eating slowly. She wanted to wolf down the food, but knew that would be a bad idea. She didn't want to give herself a reason to spend more time in the hospital.

When the hunger had dulled and her mind could move onto other things, Alianna noticed that T'Leia was sitting in the chair that Spock Prime had occupied the day before; the half-Vulcan didn't seem to mind that she hadn't been noticed. She was reading from a small book and looked as if she'd been sitting there for several hours; her long black hair was loose and spilling over one shoulder and her robes looked slightly wrinkled, the outermost one draped low over her elbows as her posture slumped. After a moment, she registered Alianna's eye contact and turned her face upwards, a small smile on her lips and her dark eyes tired, but relieved to see her friend awake. She moved the chair closer to the side of Alianna's bed and removed the tray, food half-eaten and rather forgotten as Alianna's appetite had left her at some point.

"How are you feeling this afternoon?" the half-Vulcan asked, real concern in her voice.

Alianna took her time answering, surveying her injured side and seeing if there was any pain lingering. There was not. Whatever the Vulcan doctors had given her was keeping her very comfortable; she wouldn't want to test it very far. She was a little uncomfortable, but given that she had almost just torn herself in half again, she was in remarkably good shape. However, her mental state was another thing altogether. Her mind was still tangled up in the Prime Timeline.

The things Spock Prime had told her didn't all directly affect her—the events, for example, were interesting but irrelevant. But the information about her Prime counterpart's life... she couldn't get away from it. Alianna Prime had never been all she could be, that was clear. She hadn't let her career advance beyond that of a Security Officer when, from everything Spock Prime had said, it was clear she could have gone on to be Captain of her own ship, maybe even an Admiral eventually. She could have done so much more with her life, but had kept it stationary in order to better serve Kirk. She couldn't shake her earlier apprehensions about Alianna Prime's connections to Kirk, her devotion to him and how his life had so defined hers. Because of this, her earlier thoughts that the night she'd spent with Kirk was a mistake were only enforced and she was determined not to let that relationship go any farther as it was clear a relationship between them could not work—the example may have been in another timeline, but the personalities involved were not that different.

She would not let Kirk define _her _life.

"I'm doing all right," Alianna told T'Leia after a moment's thought.

The half-Vulcan was not fooled by the lie. She frowned at her charge, but didn't press the issue, having long since learned that if Alianna didn't want to share, she wasn't going to. Instead, she gathered up the tray and the leftover food and left. A moment after the young woman's disappearance, Spock Prime entered the room—likely at the suggestion of T'Leia—his hands in the opposite sleeves of his robes and his characteristically stoic look on his weathered and friendly face. He sat in the chair and held Alianna's gaze with his own for several very long minutes, giving her the feeling that he was reading her mind, boring into her thoughts. To her knowledge, he couldn't do this, but the look was still unsettling and it made Alianna squirm.

"Alianna," he finally said, his voice level if a little chiding. "You cannot base your life in this timeline on the Alianna I knew. She was a different person and she lived her life. You do not need to live it as well."

The Starfleet officer didn't even bother to ask how Spock Prime had known what she was thinking. The Vulcan was more mysterious than his already enigmatic brethren and likely wouldn't answer anyways. Besides, it had probably been obvious what she was worried about, especially to Spock Prime who had given her the information about Alianna Prime in the first place and who knew what had happened between her and the Jim Kirk of this time. "I wasn't planning on living her life," was her lame answer.

"Alianna Prime," he spoke the name with minor awkwardness, "and Kirk's relationship was never all it could have been, but they were happy with the way it was. It was not a mistake. Nor would be any relationship you chose to pursue with Jim Kirk be a mistake."

"I..." Alianna faltered. She didn't know what she had meant to say. She frowned.

Spock Prime took the opportunity to continue. "I would not think it wise to concern yourself with that particular problem until the need arises. T'Leia tells me you are in no pain from your injuries."

Alianna nodded, taking the change is subject in stride. "Maybe a little uncomfortable," she answered truthfully. She wanted to get back on the topic of her and Kirk, but found herself patient enough to wait for when she had something better to say. _That's unlike me. _Before, she would have been angry by now as well; angry at Spock Prime for telling her how to feel, angry at herself for letting that night with Kirk happen, angry at her other self for being such a devoted Security Officer. But she wasn't. _That's even more unlike me. _"Spock," she said, voice full of all the shock she was feeling. "I'm not angry."

It was a bizarre statement, but it brought a small smile to Spock Prime's wrinkled face, almost as if he had expected something of this nature to occur; upon further reflection, Alianna realized he probably had. He was pleased to see Alianna handling her emotions better and that her anger was not dominating her reactions anymore. However, he was not so foolish to believe her temper was completely tamped down and neither was Alianna; he knew it would rise to the surface again soon enough, probably once she was in the high-stress situations frequent on board the _Enterprise_, but the hope was it would not control her. "You have made astounding progress Alianna," he said.

She returned the small smile and settled back against her pillows, her eyes heavy as she folded her arms over her stomach. "I hope it lasts. This place is so peaceful. I think it's probably easier to be calm here."

"Perhaps." Spock Prime shifted slightly, rearranging his robes. "Would you like to hear anything else about the Prime Timeline?" he asked.

Again, Alianna paused to give the question serious thought. "No," she finally said, her surprise audible in her voice. "There's nothing else I need or want to know." That afternoon was going to be one of surprises apparently.

"That is good."

Alianna yawned loudly. Realizing she needed rest, the elder Vulcan excused himself. As Spock Prime rose to his feet, Alianna turned to face him, her eyelids fluttering shut. It took a considerable effort to keep her eyes open. "Will my crew be here soon?" she asked. When Spock Prime inclined his head, a smile appeared on Alianna's face. "Wake me when they get here. I want to see my sister." She nodded with Spock Prime when he inclined his head again and then she fell asleep.

Alianna dreamed of the Prime Timeline—apparently her subconscious wasn't quite finished with the alternate time. Her thoughts of Kirk and the potential relationship were brought to the forefront. She saw Kirk Prime and the Kirk she knew, standing side by side with the same smirk on their lips and the same glint in their eyes; it was a more devastating expression in the blue eyes of her Kirk, she thought. Her Kirk? That was a weird thought... but, sure enough, she drifted towards Kirk in her dream and stood in front of him. A shadow of Alianna Prime appeared beside her, standing in front of Kirk Prime, her shorter hair bound in a spiky little ponytail at the back of her head. There was a moment when the two women looked at each other, saw the potential in each other, in their respective relationships with the men standing beside them, but Alianna Prime shook her head and then disappeared, Kirk Prime following soon after. Alianna was left to face Jim Kirk, a very serious look on his face now.

Looking into his eyes, Alianna knew the only reason that night scared her wasn't because it was a mistake, wasn't because it might bode well for her future. It was because she was afraid of how Jim made her feel and how she felt about him.

Kirk disappeared from in front of her and Alianna reached towards him, but wasn't able to grab his hand. It was then she woke up, blinking in the dim light of her hospital room. She gently rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling, the revelation of her dream still bouncing around in her head.

Did she _know_ how she felt about Kirk? No. At least... she wasn't sure.

_Don't think about that now,_ she told herself. _Go back to sleep. _

Forcing herself to think about her sister and that she would be able to see the fiery-haired Lordeck soon, Alianna fell back to sleep, wondering what Sindari had been doing while her older sister had been confined to New Vulcan, dealing with her long-standing emotional issues.

When she awoke the second time, she was alone in the hospital room and the building beyond the thick curtains was very, very quiet. The silence humming in her ears, Alianna sat up and rubbed her green eyes to clear the sleep, and ran her fingers through her dark brown hair, trying to tame it. As she moved however, her side lurched and she gasped in slight pain; evidently, whatever she had been given had worn off. She moaned and laid back down, holding her side until the pain passed—_of course, the one time I'm really alone, I need someone. _

She wasn't alone for much longer.

A few moments later, Spock Prime entered, followed by a rugged-faced man in a blue tunic and carrying a medical kit in addition to his tricorder.

"Bones!" Alianna exclaimed, smiling. She winced as her side protested again.

He was at the side of her bed quickly, scanning her and shoving her hands out of the way. If he was thrown off by the energetic greeting, he didn't show it, just stayed focused on his work. After a few moments, he pulled a hypospray out of his bag and pressed it against her neck, the tiny shock of pain doing wonders to wake Alianna up and to, just as quickly, dull the ache in her side. When she was once again calm, Spock Prime left her in the capable hands of the _Enterprise_'s doctor, knowing she was safe.

"Alianna," he said, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly in a grin. "I see you haven't learned much during your time here. You seem just as incapable of resting as you were before."

"It's nice to see you too, Bones," she replied as he continued to look her over.

"Do you think you'll be able to rest? We've been given shore leave."

Alianna groaned in aggravation that was only half-fake and let Bones examine her still-braced finger. "_More _rest? I joined Starfleet to explore and protect the galaxy, not rest."

"Well maybe if you stopped beating yourself up, you would get to 'explore and protect the galaxy'." Bones returned Alianna's smile, if a little less enthusiastically, and began to pull the brace off her finger. "The good news is, this thing can finally come off. The bad news is, if you _don't _rest, your side might not heal properly and you'll be taken out of active duty."

Knowing the surly doctor was not kidding, Alianna nodded and resigned herself to the idea of spending more time on New Vulcan, or confined to a bed somewhere at Starfleet, since they had been given shore leave. Bones was called away by someone and left after giving Alianna's shoulder a quick but affectionate squeeze. His presence was almost immediately replaced by that of Alianna's red-headed sister Sindari, two years younger and much more positive than her sister. She nearly bounced to the bedside and wrapped her arms around Alianna's shoulders in a gentle hug, one that Alianna returned, the sisters obviously very pleased to see each other again—they had never spent much time apart.

"How was your time down here?" Sindari asked, once she had finally sat down. "It is _hot_."

Alianna smiled. "Yeah, it is. But you get used to it after a few days."

"What did you do down here?"

The answering shrug was followed by, "Walk, sit by the lake, read, talk to T'Leia and Spock Prime. Nothing exciting. I was supposed to be resting, recuperating, you know, from being nearly torn in half. I wasn't having any grand adventures."

Sindari seemed to think that was impossible. She leaned forward on the bed, head resting on crossed arms. "Did you learn anything exciting from Spock Prime? He seems like he'd know a lot and he's been around for so long... Did you learn anything about the timeline he came from?"

"A bit. Mostly about the Alianna he knew."

Sindari's exuberant expression faded and she ran her fingers back through her bright red hair as she sat up. "You're not going to tell me anything, are you?" she asked, exasperated.

"There's really nothing to tell. I promise I'll try to give you more later, but I'm tired."

Seeing another opportunity to be her usual, smiling self, Sindari said, "Not too tired to see Captain Kirk, are you? He came down with the shuttle too." Alianna cursed herself as her cheeks began to heat up, and Sindari laughed a bit. "I knew there was something going on with you two."

"Sin..."

Sindari raised her hands in a defensive gesture and gave her sister the most innocent smile she could muster.

"Just send him in," Alianna breathed. _Better get this over with. _

"He was talking to Spock Prime, but I'll let him know you want to see him." Sindari rose up from the chair, bent over to kiss her sister's cheek and said, "I'm glad to see you're feeling better, Ali. I missed you."

"Missed you too, Sin."

Sindari smiled at Alianna over her shoulder and then disappeared into the heat of New Vulcan.

Surprising herself, Alianna found that the rapid two visits had worn her out a bit. She settled back against the pillows to wait for Jim Kirk, knowing he might be a while, Starfleet business and all that. Her eyelids felt heavy again and she let them close, drifting off again, but it wasn't to last. Just as she was about to fall asleep, she heard footsteps and the noise of someone settling into the chair beside her bed and she knew it was Kirk. She felt his gaze settle on her and, against her will, felt her mouth begin to bend in a smile. She managed to stop the gesture. When she opened her eyes, she indeed found Kirk looking at her, his blue eyes full of relief at seeing her awake and in one piece. He gave her a small grin, which she returned and for the next few minutes, they just looked at each other.

"Hey," Alianna eventually said, unsure of where to start.

"Hey."

They observed each other in silence.

"How are you?" Kirk asked, the tone of his voice betraying how inadequate he thought the question.

Alianna shrugged with one shoulder. "I'm tired of the desert. I miss the _Enterprise._" That earned her a slight laugh and a smile she might have described as proud. "I enjoyed talking to Spock Prime and T'Leia, the woman who helped me get around. They were both smart and willing to answer my questions and we had some very interesting conversations. I like Spock Prime, although I can't say the same for, er, our Spock." Jim laughed more at that, but it was short lived, fading upon taking in the reflective look on Alianna's face. She found it easier to talk to Jim over her sister and that bothered her, as, for so long Sindari had been the only person she had confided in. "I liked my time here," she finally said. "But I want to leave."

Sensing the change in Alianna's state, Kirk leaned forward and gently brushed a few strands of hair from her face, his fingers lingering on her skin. "Do you think you should go?"

"What do you mean?" she asked, leaning into his hand slightly.

His fingers slid into her hair, his palm warm against her cheek. "With this relapse in your injury, it may not be safe to travel."

"Well ask Bones and find out," she said a little snappishly. She lifted one hand to place over Kirk's on her cheek. She closed her eyes. "But I've learned everything I can learn from Spock Prime in regards to controlling my anger. I want to leave this planet, Jim. It's too hot and I hate sitting around while all the Vulcans are working, trying to rebuild their civilization." She looked up at him again, her green eyes full of exhaustion, as they had been since she was brought into the hospital. "I want to go somewhere quiet where I can be useless and just sleep, I think."

Jim smiled down at her and leaned a little closer. "Would you like to come to Iowa with me for a while during shore leave? It's quiet."

The question was innocent enough, and he was providing Alianna with what she wanted—a quiet place to sleep—but it brought a serious blush to her cheeks. Her skin flared scarlet underneath Jim's hand and she instinctively shied away from the physical contact; the young Captain wisely let her go. Posed on the other side of the narrow bed and with Kirk sitting back on his chair, Alianna's skin paled to its normal shade and the alarm left her green eyes—_how am I going to explain this to him? I'm freaked out by the relationship we had in another time? No. I think I'll have to figure that one out later. _

But Jim didn't give her a chance to speak. He ran one hand back over his light brown hair and sighed a little; he was having trouble with this situation, but he was doing the best he knew how. "Spock and Uhura are going to stay here on New Vulcan for their shore leave and help rebuild, Sulu and Chekov are going home, Scotty is going to oversee the repairs of the _Enterprise _and your sister and Bones are going to be in San Francisco at Starfleet while she works on her medical training," he said. He held her gaze as he searched for the words as she slowly crept back across the bed so she wasn't precariously perched on the edge. "Since you don't have any family other than Sindari, and she's going to be working..."

Alianna held up a hand to keep him from talking; she needed to think. Truth be told, a while in Iowa doing nothing but relaxing and sleeping sounded great, as much as she wanted to get back on active duty. Apparently, Bones' warning about her injury taking her out of the field had struck home. Another improvement, apparently; she would _never _have let something like that stop here before. Well, probably not. "Will we be able to visit Sin and Bones?" she asked. She really wanted to say more, but she was tired.

Kirk nodded, a small smile on his lips. "The shore leave coincides with Christmas and the Officer's Ball, which we have to go to anyway."

Alianna raised an eyebrow at her Captain's reasoning for being able to visit her sister while she was at Starfleet Academy. "I've never celebrated Christmas," she offered as an explanation. It took her a moment to remember that Christmas, once and still a religious holiday amongst certain Earth cultures, was a tradition that had been adopted by most as a time to be spent with family, a time to be close to those you cared about. Once she had satisfied her thoughts, she nodded in the general direction of Jim. "I might as well," she said. "It'll either be lying around some room at Starfleet, or in Iowa."

"My family has a farm in Iowa."

Alianna's reaction brought a wide smile to Kirk's face. "A farm?"

"Is that really so surprising?" he asked.

"Not really, I guess, but you strike me as more of a city guy."

"I spent a lot of time out of the house when I was living there. But it's a quiet place, and that's what you need. Plus, my mother is on shore leave as well and she would love to have someone to take care of."

Alianna screwed up her features in an expression that was part glare, part frown and part exasperation. She didn't like to be taken care of and Jim knew that. But she let it pass, not really having the energy to fight the way she would normally. Instead, she turned to another topic. "When are we leaving?" she asked.

"As soon as all the supplies are unloaded. Do you want to head out to the shuttle?"

She nodded, knowing if she didn't move soon, she wouldn't move at all. Once she was on the shuttle, she could sleep. On the _Enterprise_, she could sleep. Kirk helped her sit up. The robe she was wearing was much like the ones most of the Vulcans wore, so all that was need was her shoes, a pair of light almost slippers with a rubber sole to protect against the hot rocks. Once she was on her feet, Alianna had to lean heavily on her Captain in order to remain upright, but she walked under her own power, refusing to be carried or dragged. The shuttle had landed by the lake, which was no farther than Alianna had walked almost every day on New Vulcan, but then it seemed impossible to reach. Alianna leaned heavier on Jim and he tightened his arm around her middle, just below her chest.

In the settlement, there was an incredible amount of activity as the Vulcans moved about, unloading supplies from the Federation shuttle and moving supplies around. It was the most action Alianna had seen in the Vulcan settlement since she'd arrived. Spock Prime emerged from all the motion—she wouldn't say chaos, because there was a strange sort of order to it—and crossed the distance to Kirk and Alianna quickly. Not wanting to appear weak in front of a man she had come to respect, Alianna wrapped an arm rightly around Jim's shoulders and used the contact to hold herself upright and then she pulled up a grin from somewhere deep.

"I'll come and visit when I can," Alianna said. "I'd like to help in some way for everything you've done."

Spock Prime inclined his head in gratitude, but did not say there was no need, even though there wasn't. "I enjoyed our conversations, Alianna."

She gave him a genuine and brilliant grin. "Me too."

T'Leia appeared from seemingly nowhere and gave Alianna a quick hug, much against her Vulcan heritage. The two had already agreed to keep in contact, and Alianna would enjoy speaking with the bizarre women when she visited. Brief introductions were made between Kirk and T'Leia and then the Starfleet officers were being called to the shuttle as it was ready to depart. The Vulcan and the half-Vulcan walked with Kirk and Alianna to the shuttle and saw them safely settled and to bid final goodbyes to them into the rest of the crew who had come down to help deliver the supplies. Before the door closed, Alianna saw Spock Prime raise his hand in the traditional salute that meant "live long and prosper"—Alianna gave another smile in response.

As the shuttle lifted off, Alianna held on with tense fingers to the edges of the small biobed in the back of the small spacecraft; she didn't like lying down while flying in a shuttle, especially not on a biobed and while they were still in the planet's atmosphere. She ground her teeth against some turbulence, but then the vehicle was drifting easily through the vacuum of space, headed to the rendezvous coordinates with the _Enterprise._

Jim came into the back of the shuttle once it was running smooth and leaned against the wall so he could look at Alianna. "Sage is still on board the _Enterprise_," he said. "And still asking to see you."

"Good. I'd like to see him too."

A brief moment of silence passed. "So, you'll come to Iowa?"

Alianna nodded and then smiled at Jim. "I might as well," she said. "It might be fun to celebrate Christmas."

* * *

**Author's Note.**

Okay, so it's not "epic" per say, but I found it satisfying. I'm pleased with this overall, so I hope you are too.

Just a note of clarification—this fic was meant to be more a collection of snapshots of Alianna's time on New Vulcan, which is why it's a little broken up. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this and here's a little preview of what comes next.

**Next Chapter: NONE. C'EST FINI!**

**Up Next: Home For Christmas. **The crew of the _Enterprise _have been given shore leave to recover from their ordeals before their next mission, and it just so happens that the shore leave coincides with the tradition of Christmas. Alianna and Sindari have never experienced this holiday before, so while they are resting, they take the time to celebrate. This fic won't be posted until December, but that gives me some time to work on other things, so you can all look forward to this short fic in about a month.


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